The Tribune

SORRY, as the song goes, seems to be the hardest word.

And yet here we have the new FNM leader, Michael Pintard, apologising to Bahamians hurt by the decisions of the Minnis administration.

He said: “I want to say I regret that we made some of those decisions and you were hurt and we apologise to every Bahamian who has been hurt by any decision that we had made. I believe that the decisions came out of a place in our heart where often we thought the right decision was being made. But nevertheless the consequences are real for you.”

He added: “We did not get everything right and we should be honest and say it.”

All well and good, perhaps, but we should consider this apology in light of two things. First, Mr Pintard didn’t specify what any of those decisions were. It was a catch-all apology that could be interpreted as being sorry for whatever upset any particular individual.

Secondly, where was this man saying that some of these actions were wrong while in office?

He may say now that while in office “we made some decisions that resonate in entirely the wrong way with many, many Bahamians” but was he speaking out against them when he had the power to do something about that?

Of course the answer may be that he abided by collective Cabinet responsibility while in office – but if he felt strongly enough about decisions that were made he could have stepped away from Cabinet. He did not.

Others who did argue against decisions made by former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis at the time found themselves excluded or penalised. Travis Robinson, Vaughn Miller and Frederick McAlpine voted against the government increase in VAT, for example, and were fired from their posts as a result. The Westminster rules required them to be removed from their posts – but they spoke up at the time and they took their consequences.

So was Mr Pintard opposed to decisions at the time, or is he just apologising having seen the consequences in the form of the FNM being booted out of office? Had the party won, would he similarly be saying sorry?

To be fair to Mr Pintard, he has previously talked of mistakes made by the FNM in office. He called the Oban debacle a “rookie mistake”, calling the billion-dollar deal “a clumsy execution of a ceremonial signing”.

In June last year during his speech on the 2021/22 budget, Mr Pintard made clear he doesn’t support every decision his party had made and noted that more could have been done in response to events such as Hurricane Dorian.

So this isn’t just a mea culpa after the fact, and he has previously said that in office he has “raised concerns about approaches taken”. But it’s his party now, so why not be more specific? For those feeling let down by the FNM, do they look at his all-purpose apology now and wonder “Does he mean me? Or someone else?”

Referring to his own future on Friday, Mr Pintard said he would serve for as long as the party would have him, but added “rest assured, the day you make the determination you don’t want me I wouldn’t be fighting tooth and nail, left, right and centre, east, west, north and south to hold on”.

Who is he suggesting was doing that? His predecessor in the role of party leader? Or perhaps someone in his new team going forward? Mr Pintard, spell it out – just as perhaps more people would have appreciated you spelling out the decisions you had problems with while in office. Don’t be shy.